Ghanaians to pay ‘mental’ tax – Mental Health Authority

Deputy Director of Quality and Rights at the Mental Health Authority, Lawyer Akorfa Akpanya Hlorvor has revealed that, Ghanaians will soon pay mental health levy.

“Mental health bill is in Parliament and when passed every citizen will pay the levy to help cater for mental health patients” she explained.

Lawyer Akorfa disclosed this to Daakyehene Ofosu Agyeman host of My Lawyer My Counselor on TV XyZ and added that Government’s support to the various psychiatric hospitals are not enough hence, Ghanaians will soon pay mental health tax.

‘Do you know that mental health patients are supposed to receive free treatment but unfortunately they have to pay because Government can’t carter for them” lawyer Akorfa stressed.

Mental Health Rights

People living with mental health conditions are people. They have people they love, activities they enjoy, and dreams for their lives. As people, they deserve to be treated with dignity, and under the law they have rights and protections.

Unfortunately, it has long been the case that individuals with mental health conditions are among the most abused and discriminated against in our country.

From leaving people to languish in overcrowded state hospitals to lobotomies and forced sterilization, the treatment of those with mental health conditions is a dark stain on our history as a nation.

Rights of persons living with mental health conditions in Ghana

According Ghana’s Mental Health law, Act 846.

Persons living with some form of mental health conditions are no less humans and equally deserve every fair treatment anyone is entitled to.

In Ghana one document that directly explains all the rights therein should one experience any form of mental illness is the mental health act 846.

The Mental Health Act 846 was passed in 2012 by parliament. The overall aims are: to ensure the rights and quality treatment of persons with mental disorder; and to stipulate changes to the organisation, provision and funding of mental health services.

Rights of persons with mental disorders
Non-discrimination

1 (A person with mental disorder is entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms as provided for in the Constitution.

(2) A person with past or present mental disorder shall not be sub-jected to discrimination and, whatever the cause, nature or degree of the mental disorder, has the same fundamental rights as a fellow citizen.

(3) A tenant or employee who develops mental disorder shall not be (a) evicted from the place of residence of that person, or (b) dismissed from the place of employment of that person on the basis of mental disorder.